Little Nemo done fast using fceu-0.98.13-rerecording.
The run
- Aims for the fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
and depending on the way you look at it, abuses a programming oversight (more on this later).
Hey everyone! This is a new movie of Little Nemo, a game where the player has to collect keys and get to the end of each level and finally save Slumberland from the evil Nightmare King. The length of my movie is 24:38 and the published run by Sleepz is 27:08, which makes my run a whole 2,5 minutes shorter. Sleepz's movie is almost two years old now so it's no wonder I managed to improve his movie.
The thing about the game is that there are helpful animals which have to be utilized all over the levels. The violet lizard is the fastest animal and he walks faster than Nemo, so I use him whenever I have the chance (except for level 1 where it's faster not to because the changing takes time). The frog walks very slowly but when he jumps he can move just as fast as Nemo. The bee is faster than Nemo as well, but he has to land occasionally. The mouse is very clumsy and walks slower than Nemo. The mole is faster than Nemo, and I change back to Nemo as late as possible because of this.
Making the movie was surprisingly easy. Despite the fact that the order of the keys is not set in stone, the best routes are easy to see without even testing them. It only took me about 12 hours to make the movie thanks to the game's stiff and simple physics.
The improvements
Probably the biggest timesaver is using FCEU and frame advance to do things on the first frame possible. As for tricks, the biggest timesaving trick is skipping all text in the beginning of levels by jumping. This is the programming oversight I mentioned earlier. I also made sure not to make any excessive jumps, as jumping is slower than walking because of the short stop after each jump. A big improvement was charging the beam to the fullest and not wasting any time doing anything else while fighting the bosses in the end. Another small improvement was never taking damage when it slowed me down. I made sure taking damage always pushed me forward.
That's about it. Please feel free to remind me if I forgot anything. I hope you enjoy the movie.